Pictures of Your Boiler

Yes, we need a Hartford Loop and a pair of B+G McDonnel and Miller RB-122-E Low Water Cut offs wired in series to prevent the boiler from boiling dry and a very large drop header for dry steam and a new steamtrol most likely.

The you tube video shows a new boiler with a drop header.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MArEZBhDPag

Sitting in shed for testing.

Thought I would send a video of the flex auger I installed last summer. I wasn’t sure it would work as it turned vertical

Ra1pchair wrote: ↑

Mon. Feb. 21, 2022 4:37 pm

Thought I would send a video of the flex auger I installed last summer. I wasn’t sure it would work as it turned vertical

Very nice setup! The typical farm augers I've seen make huge amounts of dust using coal. I couldn't see any dust coming out of your flex auger. Was that coal completely dry?

Mostly dry but still some dust on occasion

Just realized I never posted any pics in here. They're everywhere else, lol.

Here's my EFM520 Highboy. Installed 1 month ago today. Was restored over 10 years ago, and sat in a buddy's barn for all that time, then spent a year sitting here. It's got a Fitzgibbon boiler built in 1951, and a EFM stoker unit. I plumbed and wired it to the existing Burnham oil boiler.

Zero complaints. Old stuff just plain WORKS!

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing. I've just added "lowering down a hefty arse boiler base a flight of wooden steps" to my bucket/adventure list....

Boilers and steps are fun. Caught a neighbor a few years back with boiler on truck backed into the basement door. I stopped and the 3 of us knocked it out using planks and a strap hooked to the bumper.

It looks good in there, Smitty! What is the blue thing on the boiler, auger? I don't see anything hooked to it.

The blue tube is the auger going into that old, blue(ish) plastic 55 gallon drum. The other blue thing is the stoker mechanism on the opposite side. I'll see if I can attach a video of it running.

To help getting stuff up and down the stairs, I ripped a sheet of plywood in half, then screwed it to the stairs. Made getting back upstairs a ton of fun ... and exercise, since there's no other way out of the basement. When I got that boiler wedged into the doorway to the basement, that plank stayed screwed down for 9 months! Imagine the fun I had having to climb OVER the boiler, then slide down the plywood in order to push the red reset button on my failing 27 year old Beckett oil burner EVERY single day, sometimes six times per day! That provided a little kick in the ass to get moving on the project.

Retro_Origin wrote: ↑

Wed. Dec. 14, 2022 9:11 pm

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing. I've just added "lowering down a hefty arse boiler base a flight of wooden steps" to my bucket/adventure list....

Thanks, Keith! Always an adventure getting heavy stuff down stairs. You just have to remember you only have to do it once (usually!). In my case I've done it FOUR times! A Harman Mark I down the stairs then back up 3 years later, a Mark III down and back up 5 years later (both sold), a custom coal stoker boiler down, then back up 8 years later (Coalheat is now in possession of it), and now the EFM520 down ... and will NEVER come back up again so long as I'm alive!!

Seems like everyone with a 520 is a happy camper so you probably won’t be moving it again! That’s one of the most attractive things to me about the Axeman, it’s a lightweight powerhouse! Two of us carried it down my basement steps!

NICE! That makes life MUCH easier! I wish I could've carried this thing, lol. I'd have had it installed in 2021! I also just found out that the boiler alone weighs about 300 pounds MORE than I thought! Around 1,150!! No wonder we struggled!! Good thing my stairs were built in 1920 or so, lol.

I just shot a YouTube vid on the boiler install. Not an installation video, but just telling the tale with pictures:

Retro_Origin wrote: ↑

Wed. Dec. 14, 2022 9:11 pm

Nice pics! Thanks for sharing. I've just added "lowering down a hefty arse boiler base a flight of wooden steps" to my bucket/adventure list....

My oil boiler, like yours in pic went out few years back. About 600-800 lbs ... I put a 2by4 across the first floor threshold and winched the boiler down on a dolly. About 1" clearance through the doorway like yours. I was younger back then. Did it myself.

The boiler was $1800 ..my state requires only licensed plumbers are able to buy ... Home Depot asked if I was and I said "sure".. it provides hot water. My Hitzer provides heat.

Took one day to do the piping. Then another day to fix the leaky ones.

Boilers are pretty simple machines. Nice pics....looks like your getting it into place was slightly more complicated than mine was.

Yeah thank God for that (the simplicity), Dave!

I think MA is the same, but I always buy everything on the net, or used, so less questions are asked.

That's how I did all the other boilers ... same as you, only the winch or cable was attached to a board nailed across 3 studs, since the doorway is off to the side. Thats how this one started off. Then, the board yanked out of the studs and all 1150 lbs. went careening down the stairs at 100 MPH! Saved us some time anyway!

Thank you all for sharing these amazing pictures of your properties, happy to see antiques.